A History of Philosophy: Volume IX: Modern Philosophy from by Frederick Copleston

By Frederick Copleston

Conceived initially as a significant presentation of the advance of philosophy for Catholic seminary scholars, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A historical past Of Philosophy has journeyed a long way past the modest function of its writer to common acclaim because the most sensible heritage of philosophy in English.

Conceived initially as a significant presentation of the advance of philosophy for Catholic seminary scholars, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A historical past Of Philosophy has journeyed a long way past the modest function of its writer to common acclaim because the most sensible heritage of philosophy in English.

Additional resources for A History of Philosophy: Volume IX: Modern Philosophy from the French Revolution to Sartre, Camus, and Levi-Strauss

Sample text

P. 369. o Journal, II, p. 188. 1 1 34 FROM THE REVOLUTION TO AUGUSTE COMTE changes certainly occurred. 1 A t the same time it is important to understand that when Maine de Biran conceived and developed the idea of the life of the spirit, he did not so much reject as add to his former psychological theories. For instance, he did not reject his theory of consciousness as relational, nor his view of the life of the free and active subject of consciousness as that which is peculiar to man and as the level on which personal existence arises.

Lamennais tried to secure the approval of Pope Gregory X V I ; but in 1832 the pope issued an encyclical letter (Mirari vos) in which he censured indifferentism, liberty of conscience and the doctrine that Church and State should be separated. Lamennais was not named in the letter. While however the pope's condemnation of indifferentism could be taken as an endorsement of Lamennais' early Essai sur I'indiffdrence, the editor of Avenir was clearly affected by the encyclical. In 1834 Lamennais published Words of a Believer (Paroles d'un croyant) in which he supported all oppressed and suffering peoples and groups and advocated complete freedom of conscience for all.

In 1834 Lamennais published Words of a Believer (Paroles d'un croyant) in which he supported all oppressed and suffering peoples and groups and advocated complete freedom of conscience for all. In point of fact he endorsed the ideals of the revolution, liberty, equality and fraternity, as interpreted in a religious setting. The a letter book was censured by Pope Gregory X V I in June 1834 addressed to the French bishops; but by then Lamennais was pretty well detached from the Church. And two years later, in Affairs of Rome (Affaires de Rome), he rejected the idea of achieving social order either through monarchs or through the pope.